Quote:
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Everyone knows that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Republicans.
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Talk about revisionist history!!
The act had languished in Congress until Lyndon Johnson made it the center piece of his legislative program after President Kennedy was assinated in November of 1963. You remember, LBJ -- a Democrat!!
Then, Majority Leader Mike Mansfield sent the bill to the floor after the second reading bypassing the usual process of sending the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it would have certainly died. Mike Mansfield, lest you forget, was a Democrat.
Opposition of the Southern Block was led by Strom Thurmond, who at the time was a Democrat, but later in 1964, switched party afiliation to the Republican Party because of the Civil Rights vote. (Recall also that Thurmond ran on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948 because he found Truman's support of civil rights abhorrent. You know, Harry Truman the Democrat.)
Joining him in his opposition to the bill was Sen. Barry Goldwater. You remember him. He was not only a Republican, but THE Republican candidate for President that year. And it was his opposition to the Civil Rights bill that got him the nomination.
It is true that northern Republicans, who in that era were moderates, did favor passage of the bill. Of course, there are now almost no moderate Republicans in the Congress. Likewise, Southern Democrats, with very rare exception opposed the bill. Of course there are now almost no Southern Democrats other than minority Democrats. All of those who were Southern Democrats in those days are now Republicans.
Of course the changing face of the politics of the South did not surprise any of those who were participants in this drama. Richard Russell, LBJ's great friend in the Senate from Georgia was said to have remarked to Johnson when he signed the bill, "You know, Lyndon, you just signed the death warrant for the Democratic Party in the South." And so he did, with the exception of minority dominated district as we can see by looking at the political map today.
